TO PICKLE GHERKINS AND FRENCH BEANS.
These are, of all vegetables, the most difficult to pickle, so that their green colour and freshness may be preserved. Choose some fine fresh gherkins, and set them to soak in brine for a week; then drain them, and pour over boiling vinegar, prepared with the usual spices, first having covered them with fresh vine leaves. If they do not appear to be of a fine green, pour off the vinegar, boil it up again, cover the gherkins with fresh green vine leaves, and pour over the vinegar again. French beans are pickled exactly the same.
TO PICKLE CAULIFLOWERS.
Remove the stalks and leaves, break the flower into pieces, parboil them in brine, then drain them, and lay them in a jar, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar.
TO PICKLE MELON MANGOES.
Cut the melons in half, remove the pulpy part and the seeds, soak the halves for a week in strong brine, then fill them with the usual spices, mustard-seed and garlic, and tie them together with packthread; put them in jars, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar.
Large cuc.u.mbers may be pickled in the same way.
PICCALILI.
Pickle gherkins, French beans, and cauliflower, separately, as already directed; the other vegetables used are carrots, onions, capsic.u.ms, white cabbage, celery, and, indeed almost any kind may be put into this pickle, except walnuts and red cabbage. They must be cut in small pieces, and soaked in brine, the carrots only, requiring to be boiled in it to make them tender; then prepare a liquor as follows: into half a gallon of vinegar put two ounces of ginger, one of whole black pepper, one of whole allspice, and one of bruised chillies, three ounces of shalots, and one ounce of garlic; boil together nearly twenty minutes; mix a little of it in a basin, with two ounces of flour of mustard and one ounce of turmeric, and stir it in gradually with the rest; then pour the liquor over the vegetables.
TO PICKLE MUSHROOMS.
Choose small b.u.t.ton mushrooms, clean and wipe them, and throw them into cold water, then put into a stewpan with a little salt, and cover them with distilled vinegar, and simmer a few minutes. Put them in bottles with a couple of blades or so of mace, and when cold, cork them closely.
TO PICKLE ONIONS.
Choose all of a size and soak in boiling brine, when cold, drain them and put them in bottles, and fill up with hot distilled vinegar; if they are to be _white_, use white wine vinegar; if they are to be _brown_, use the best distilled vinegar, adding, in both cases, a little mace, ginger, and whole pepper.
TO PICKLE WHITE AND RED CABBAGE.
Take off the outside leaves, cut out the stalk, and shred the cabbage into a cullender, sprinkle with salt, let it remain for twenty-four hours, then drain it. Put it into jars, and fill up with boiling vinegar, prepared with the usual spices; if the cabbage is red, a little cochineal powdered, or a slice or two of beet-root is necessary to make the pickle a fine colour; if it is white cabbage, add instead, a little turmeric powder.
TO PICKLE WALNUTS.
Soak in brine for a week, p.r.i.c.k them, and simmer in brine, then let them lay on a sieve to drain, and to turn black, after which place them in jars, and pour over boiling spiced vinegar.
AN OLD WAY OF PICKLING CUc.u.mBERS.
Cut the cuc.u.mbers in small pieces, length ways, with the peel left on; lay them in salt for twenty-four hours, then dry the pieces with a cloth, lay them in a deep dish, and pour over the following mixture: some vinegar boiled with cayenne pepper, whole ginger, a little whole pepper, and mustard seed, a few West India pickles are by some considered an improvement. This mixture should stand till nearly cold before covering the cuc.u.mbers, which should then be bottled. This pickle is fit for eating a few days after it is made, and will also keep good in a dry place as long as may be required.
CHAPTER X.
Receipts for Invalids.
BEEF TEA.
Cut one pound of fleshy beef in dice, or thin slices, simmer for a short time without water, to extract the juices, then add, by degrees, one quart of water, a little salt, a piece of lemon peel, and a sprig of parsley, are the only necessary seasonings; if the broth is required to be stronger put less water.
CHICKEN PANADA.
Boil a chicken till rather more than half done in a quart of water, take of the skin, cut off the white parts when cold, and pound it to a paste in a mortar, with a small quant.i.ty of the liquor it was boiled in, season with salt, a little nutmeg, and the least piece of lemon peel; boil it gently, and make it with the liquor in which the fowl has been boiled of the required consistency. It should be rather thicker than cream.
CHICKEN BROTH.
After the white parts have been removed for the panada, return the rest of the chicken to the saucepan, with the liquid, add one blade of mace, one slice only of onion, a little salt, and a piece of lemon peel; carefully remove every particle of fat. Vermicelli is very well adapted for this broth.
RESTORATIVE JELLIES.
There are various kinds of simple restorative jellies suited to an invalid, among the best are the following:--
HARTSHORN JELLY.
Boil half a pound of hartshorn shavings in two quarts of water over a gentle fire until it becomes thick enough to hang about a spoon, then strain it into a clean saucepan and add half a pint of sherry wine, and a quarter of a pound of white sugar, clear it by stirring in the whites of a couple of eggs, whisked to a froth; boil it for about four or five minutes, add the juice of three lemons, and stir all together, when it is well curdled, strain it and pour into the mould, if the color is required to be deeper than the wine will make it, a little saffron may be boiled in it.
BARLEY JELLY.
Boil in an iron saucepan, one tea-cup full of pearl barley, with one quart of cold water, pour off the water when it boils, and add another quart, let it simmer very gently for three hours over or near a slow fire, stirring it frequently with a wooden spoon, strain it, and sweeten with white sugar, add the juice of a lemon, a little white wine, and a quarter of an ounce of isingla.s.s dissolved in a little water, and pour it into a mould. This is a very nourishing jelly.
CAUDLE.
Make a fine smooth gruel of grits, with a few spices boiled in it, strain it carefully and warm as required, adding white wine and a little brandy, nutmeg, lemon peel, and sugar, according to taste, some persons put the yolk of an egg.